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Conservation Advisory Council, residents urge planning board to reject Route 22 tower
Summary
The Conservation Advisory Council and multiple residents told the board the Homeland Towers/Verizon proposal would harm Ankrum's scenic corridor and lacks sufficient evidence of need; CAC listed four application deficiencies and urged rejection or stricter proof requirements.
Members of the Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) and several town residents urged the planning board to reject the Homeland Towers/Verizon application unless more rigorous evidence is provided that the facility is necessary and that less intrusive alternatives have been evaluated.
Tom Ciano, representing the CAC health committee, presented an updated report and listed four areas of concern: the timing and credibility of the applicant's claim that new equipment made a 100-foot tower sufficient; lack of minimum-height needs assessment and drive-test measurements; an incomplete alternate-site analysis; and no safeguards preventing later increases in tower height. "We believe that the applicant must demonstrate the need for a new tower and show that the proposed tower is the minimum height required to address the need," Ciano said.
Jane Banks, chair of the Conservation Advisory Council, emphasized the town's long-standing emphasis on protecting the Scenic Corridor Overlay Zone and said the board should give the scenic protection policy serious weight. Several residents from Boston Corners and White House Crossing Road described intermittent coverage in the area and questioned whether the proposed location would serve the most-densely populated sections of the hamlet.
Residents asked the board to enforce local zoning standards and to ensure the applicant delivers probative evidence of who will benefit and how much coverage will improve. The board took public comment and moved to contract an independent visual review and continue the hearing to allow more documentation to be filed.
